Video: Mysterious man tearing down Ottawa arts posters caught on tape

<strong>City councillor Diane Holmes is encouraging people to get photo or video evidence of the person, or people, who are removing posters from legal posting collars. (Ottawa Citizen photo)</strong>

If the city’s arts community wants to stop the person — or people — who are illegally tearing down promotional posters, then they should get photo or video evidence of the offenders in the act and share it with authorities, says city councillor Diane Holmes.

The councillor for Somerset ward, which includes most of downtown Ottawa, says she has received complaints from the public about the ongoing problem of people tearing down posters that are legally displayed on the “collars” that the city installs on utility poles expressly as a place for posters.

Artists and musicians, who rarely have the funds for paid advertising and can spend many hours putting posters on the pole collars throughout downtown neighbourhoods, have been complaining for years about their posters being illegally removed by a person, or people.

The City of Ottawa removes all the posters twice each month, but self-appointed poster vigilantes have been wandering the streets and removing the posters at will. Removing the posters without city permission is a legal offence.

I saw a man removing posters from collars on Elgin Street a couple of months ago — alas, I didn’t have my phone and couldn’t take a photo. (Read more about that here.) The man had a blade of some sort and, given his erratic behaviour, I felt it unsafe to approach. He was not a young man, and was wearing a cap and a winter coat with a Sears logo.

Holmes says that she’s been in touch with police to discuss the continuing problem.

“I’ve phoned the chief, asking him to be on the lookout, to start doing some patrols. Of course, you have to find the person in action to charge him, but the more people out taking photographs, the better. Surely at some point the man is going to be identifiable, it’ll be a good enough-photograph,” Holmes told me recently.

“We do need to find who this person is,” she said. “Any information will be helpful.”

Meanwhile, Ottawa artist and inventor Darcy Whyte recently videotaped a man removing posters on Bank Street in Centretown. The man claimed to be working for the city, though, clearly, he was not. (A city contractor roaming the streets alone, after dark? Give me a break.)

“I actually spoke to him,” Whyte tells me. “I asked if he works for the city. He said, ‘Yes, I’m a contractor.’ He motored north, I then thought of video, switched on and followed him. He’s basically tearing them down and stuffing them in the nearest bin. . . . He sees me in the glass from behind as he figured out I was videoing him, so instead of stuffing in the bin he disappears along the side of the building.”

You can see an edited clip of Whyte’s video below. It’s shaky, but it’s further proof that this person, and perhaps others, are tearing down posters at will, and hurting the city’s cultural community with every step. And all because — one presumes — a single individual finds the posters to be unappealing.

If I ever run into this man again, here’s what I’d like to ask him: if you want to protest against something ugly in the city, then why not go after “graffiti” tagging? It’s out of control, has no artistic validity at all, and is truly a scourge on our streets. But, hey, I guess that tearing down legal posters advertising valid art events is easier.

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Below: Darcy Whyte’s video of a man removing posters from collars on Bank Street in Ottawa.

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